Packaging & cycle

[GRI 301/103-1] Waste avoidance is a key pillar of sustainable development. At almost 82 per cent, packaging waste* accounts for the biggest proportion of the total waste generated by the ALDI North Germany. For many products, packaging is essential for protection and quality assurance, making it impossible to avoid it completely. That is why we focus on recyclable materials and, in some cases, on multiple-use systems for fruit and vegetable outer packaging. Moreover, we are reviewing ways to contribute to a circular economy that helps conserve resources through packaging and through our products and carrier bags.

Our approach

[GRI 301/103-2] When it comes to our transport and outer packaging, we use multiple-use systems whenever it makes economic and ecological sense to do so. Most of our fruit and vegetable products are transported in multiple-use boxes instead of conventional cardboard packaging. However, single-use packaging is unavoidable in many cases in order to protect our products during transport. In Germany, we use foils and boxes made of recyclable materials so that these can be recovered. What is more, our disposable cardboard packaging already consists partially of recycled and/or certified material in many ALDI North Group countries.

Our considerations with a view to the circular economy do not stop at packaging. In a circular economy, products are developed and manufactured in such a way that they can continue to be used or fully recovered following their original use, reducing the amount of waste and the amount of resources required to manufacture new products. We intend to encourage this mindset in future through appropriate projects.

Organisation and guidelines

[GRI 301/103-2/3] The topics of packaging and the cycle are coordinated in an interdisciplinary manner at the ALDI North Group. Corporate Responsibility (CR), Quality Assurance and Buying work together to address these issues. Because many packaging materials are made out of wood fibres, our approach to dealing with packaging and recycling within the ALDI North Group is guided by the provisions of our International Timber Purchasing Policy, among other things. In Germany, the new Packaging Act (Verpackungsgesetz), which will replace the previous Packaging Ordinance (Verpackungsverordnung) with effect from 1 January 2019, also plays a role. In the Netherlands, the food retail and manufacturing industries have set cross-sector targets for more sustainable packaging. The move towards a circular economy is also particularly apparent when it comes to the fast-paced apparel industry. In our National Cotton Purchasing Policy, we focus on using recycled cotton in Germany as well.

Progress and measures in 2017

New International Timber Purchasing Policy

[GRI 301/103-2/3] Most of our outer packaging is made of wood fibres. The exact figure varies from country to country. All told, almost 80 per cent of our packaging waste consists of wood, board or paper. In our International Timber Purchasing Policy, we lay out clear rules that are valid throughout the ALDI North Group for dealing with this resource – and therefore for dealing with a great deal of our packaging. We plan to change all wood and wood-based products, sales packaging, outer packaging and transport packaging to recycled or sustainably certified materials by 2020 (see Targets and status). At the same time, the purchasing policy is a binding framework for our relationship with our business partners. We work with them to rise to the social, environmental and economic challenges resulting in this field. Today, 18 per cent of our packaging waste already falls within the scope of the new International Timber Purchasing Policy. In the period under review, we started changing wood-based small packaging for fresh shell eggs to 100 per cent recycled materials.

Textiles and footwear: more recycled fibres

We already use recycled fibres in textiles and footwear. Special blankets and pillows with recycled fibres, for example, are part of our special-buy product range in Germany. These fibres come from PET bottles that we take back at our reverse vending machines. The PET bottles are chopped into flakes and ultimately spun into fibres. By 2020, we plan to investigate the implementation of closed-loop projects and corresponding research projects where it makes sense and is appropriate to do so. We are also looking into expanding the use of recycled fibres.

Doing away with disposable bags

In late 2017, we started discontinuing conventional disposable plastic shopping bags in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Once the conversion process has been completed, these ALDI North Group countries will only carry reusable totes. For more information, please see the story entitled "Disposing with disposables".

Targets and status

[GRI 301/103-2/3] Our International Timber Purchasing Policy contains clear targets for packaging. Among other things, we plan to convert all newly purchased sales, outer and transport packaging for products to sustainably certified quality or recycled material, depending on availability. In this respect, we accept the FSC^®** and PEFC^™*** standards or other standards in individual consultation that contribute to the promotion of sustainable forestry and/or environmentally friendly processing. For outer and transport packaging, we accept materials that consist of at least 70 per cent recycled materials without certification. The changeover is set to start immediately and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2020. In Germany, the changeover from disposable shopping bags to reusable carrier bags is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018 in consideration of existing supplier agreements.

Our targets from the CR Programme:

Field of action: supply chain responsibility

Objective	Status	Target date	Target value	Target relevance
Preparation and publication of an International Timber Purchasing Policy		2017	Purchasing policy	ALDI Nord Group
Changeover of wood and wood-based products to sustainably certified materials (FSC^®, PEFC™, EU Ecolabel or comparable standards)	new	2020	100%	ALDI Nord Group
Changeover of all newly purchased sales packaging, repackaging and transport packaging for products to recycled and/or sustainably certified materials (FSC^®, PEFC™, EU Ecolabel or comparable standards), depending on availability	new	2020	100%	ALDI Nord Group

Target achieved Ongoing process – Sustainability at ALDI North

Ongoing process

Field of action: resource conservation

Objective	Status	Target date	Target value	Target relevance
Discontinuation of plastic bags	new	2018	100%	Germany, Netherlands, Belgium

Performance indicators

[GRI 301-1]

Number of bags sold/given away

Number of bags sold/given away by type (in thousand)

	2015					2016					2017
	Carrier bags	Long-life shopping bags	Cooling bags	Bakery product bags	String net bags	Carrier bags	Long-life shopping bags	Cooling bags	Bakery product bags	String net bags	Carrier bags	Long-life shopping bags	Cooling bags	Bakery product bags	String net bags
Belgium/Luxembourg¹	8,729	963	310	7,615	–	8,759	1,088	337	9,213	–	8,268	1,225	362	8,794	–
Denmark	6,459	79	48	7,315	3,678	6,733	84	50	9,187	3,536	6,606	71	42	12,951	4,480
Germany	46,627	1,753	878	118,652	184,744	44,160	2,182	876	129,580	181,688	36,543	2,081	930	160,093	175,730
France²	9,813	2,345	844	20,647	10,500	11,016	1,332	808	46,638	10,500	10,681	1,506	820	58,864	38,320
Netherlands	6,392	465	192	–	–	5,483	444	180	111	–	6,034	518	220	5,867	1,792
Poland³	2,202	39	–	–	25,760	2,780	43	17	2,888	26,880	2,623	51	25	7,920	41,280
Portugal	1,725	157	11	2,373	10,206	2,208	206	15	7,560	9,072	3,127	298	22	16,888	14,742
Spain	17,344	433	57	23,160	12,000	22,248	573	75	29,254	21,736	25,572	624	101	37,113	33,916
ALDI Nord Group	99,292	6,234	2,340	179,762	246,888	103,387	5,952	2,356	234,431	253,412	99,455	6,374	2,523	308,489	310,171

¹ The information regarding the legally independent companies of the ALDI Nord Group in Belgium and Luxembourg has been combined for the purposes of a simplified presentation (refer to "Subject of the report"). Bakery product bags made of both plastic and paper are used in Belgium.
² Late reporting information for the years 2015 and 2016 resulted in partial adjustments compared with the previous year’s report.
³ The carrier bags in Poland are different from those used by the rest of the ALDI Nord Group in terms of design and size.

Materials used for primary packaging

Weight of materials used for primary packaging (in metric tons)^{1, 2, 3}

	2015				2016				2017
	Total	Wood, board, paper	Plastics	Other	Total	Wood, board, paper	Plastics	Other	Total	Wood, board, paper	Plastics	Other
Belgium/Luxembourg⁴	100,260	22,418	26,766	51,076	84,539	16,967	24,921	42,651	74,074	13,203	24,387	36,484
Denmark	5,000	882	1,323	2,795	2,521	554	397	1,570	8,880	1,612	1,525	5,743
Germany	584,192	83,163	177,909	323,120	286,952	52,191	53,314	181,447	280,692	50,964	48,194	181,534
France	15,002	2,431	3,004	9,567	7,798	1,526	900	5,372	54,697	9,931	9,391	35,375
Netherlands	90,155	10,437	23,857	55,861	64,215	7,758	16,703	39,754	104,028	14,896	23,763	65,369
Poland⁵	8,658	2,715	2,066	3,877	4,410	1,633	901	1,876	7,643	2,171	1,614	3,858
Portugal	2,075	506	558	1,011	1,885	475	437	973	7,947	813	3,764	3,370
Spain	20,125	4,857	6,354	8,914	14,265	3,840	3,275	7,150	30,462	6,845	6,228	17,389
ALDI Nord Group	825,467	127,409	241,837	456,221	466,585	84,944	100,848	280,793	568,423	100,435	118,866	349,122

¹ The data are partly based on estimates and extrapolations.
² Excluding data on items that are purchased nationally by our companies in Denmark and France. The quantities stated for these countries were sourced through the common ALDI Buying organisation.
³ The change in values for all countries except Belgium and Luxembourg compared to previous years is attributable to a change in the methodology used to estimate the quantities sourced through the common ALDI Buying organisation.
⁴ The information regarding the legally independent companies of the ALDI Nord Group in Belgium and Luxembourg has been combined for the purposes of a simplified presentation (refer to "Subject of the report"). The values pertaining to plastic packaging are based on the statutory packaging declaration and have been adjusted retroactively for the two previous years.
⁵ For items purchased in Poland, primary and secondary packaging was recorded as primary packaging.

Primary packaging made of wood, board and paper within the scope of our Timber Purchasing Policy

Proportion of the weight of materials used for primary packaging accounted for by wood, board and paper (in per cent)

	2015	2016	2017
ALDI Nord Group	15.4	18.2	17.7

* Packaging waste
At the ALDI North Group, we differentiate between sales packaging, outer packaging and transport packaging. The outer and transport packaging included in our data is attributable to our distribution centres and stores. Our customers can dispose of sales packaging – i.e. the product and packaging combined – directly at our stores. However, our customers usually dispose of sales packaging themselves at home.

**FSC^®
The acronym FSC^® refers to the independent certification organisation Forest Stewardship Council^®. The FSC^® differentiates between three categories: FSC^® 100%, FSC^® MIX and FSC^® RECYCLED.

*** PEFC^™
The abbreviation PEFC™ stands for the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes, which is an independent, international certification organisation. PEFC™ differentiates between two categories: PEFC™ for certified fresh fibres and PEFC™ Recycled for certified recycled materials.

SDG